GOP Doug Collins has a great idea

Have the federal government investigate a news source for a report unfavorable to the president.  Just what you'd expect from a representative democracy, no?

we are living in disturbing times.

GOP Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.) on Tuesday called for an investigation into CNN over the network's report that said the CIA pulled a high-level informant from Russia amid concerns that President Trump mishandled intelligence.

“To put this out at this time and to put it such a way that the CIA had to come out and respond to this is really a disturbing part,” Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News.

“I really question whose side CNN is on," the GOP congressman continued. "This is a problem we’re seeing. I think it needs to be investigated. With the CIA coming out like it has, I think it has to be something we look at."

Collins's call for an investigation came as the White House and CIA broadly denied CNN's report, and as new reporting emerged from other outlets that appeared to contradict key parts of the network's story.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on Tuesday.

CNN's report published the previous day was the first to detail efforts by the CIA to extract a top informant from Russia.

[...]

CNN reported that the source's removal was driven "in part" by concerns Trump and his administration could contribute to the source's exposure by mishandling classified intelligence.

But later reports published by The New York Times and The Washington Post contradicted part of CNN's story.

Former intelligence officials told the Times that there was no public evidence indicating that Trump directly endangered the informant. Other officials said the extraction stemmed from concerns about the media's scrutiny of the agency.

As news outlets reported more on topics such as the CIA's intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election, the agency reportedly revived an extraction plan for the top-level informant.

The move ultimately caused the CIA to lose a key source of its information about the Kremlin. The spy was key to the CIA's finding that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Times reported.

[...]

CIA Director for Public Affairs Brittany Bramell said in a statement to CNN that its narrative for the story was "simply false."

"Misguided speculation that the President's handling of our nation's most sensitive intelligence — which he has access to each and every day — drove an alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate," Bramell said.

  The Hill